Democrats Still Want to Tax the Rich
Dec 14, 2007 Political
The Democrats are looking for ways to raise taxes and their favorite target, as always, is the rich. The Democrats have this misguided idea that the rich should pay more because they make more. This is an idea based in lunacy and cultured in class warfare, something the Democrats are very good at. Assuming that all citizens receive the same benefits from government (which is not the case), why should the rich pay more for the same benefits? Why is it fair to make those who make more pay more?
Vin Suprynowicz wrote an excellent piece where he asks that very question. His piece is designed to disprove teacher’s complaints about his assertion that schools indoctrinate students but the analogies he uses are spot on.
Tell them that to defend our country, the Congress has decided we need a new fleet of aircraft carriers that will cost $500 per American. This is to be funded by an income tax which requires one multi-millionaire like Bill Gates to pay $2,500, five average Joes earning better that the national median paycheck to pay $500 apiece, and thus allows four guys whose incomes are way below average to pay nothing at all. Does this represent “everyone paying his fair share”?
The question posed in this scenario is how Democrats view our country. They believe it is absolutely fair to charge Gates more, five guys above the median the $500 and four guys nothing. This is how the progressive tax system works and it is what Democrats are suggesting each time they say they want to raise taxes on the rich. They want the rich to pay more, the above median folks to pay the actual cost and the poor to pay nothing at all.
The problems is, as pointed out by Suprynowicz, everyone in the country would benefit equally from the fleet of aircraft carriers. The fleet does not offer Bill Gates any more protection than the guy who did not have to pay anything at all because we all receive equal protection. As Suprynowicz also points out, our income tax system is run differently than the way we pay for other things:
We pay for most things this way, after all. If a bridge has a $1 toll, everyone pays a dollar – the toll-takers don’t demand more from the guy in the Mercedes and less from the poor fellow in the rattletrap.
Buying a can of beans at the store? No one contends it would be “fair” to charge the well-dressed lady many times the price marked on the can. We also pay for our highways this way – the excise tax on a gallon of gasoline is the same for Mr. Gates as it is for you or me, on the theory that all our cars wear down the pavement about the same.
My first reaction when I read this was that he has it right and it is so easy that anyone should understand it. My second was complete fear that some idiot in government would read it and figure it would be a good idea to charge for everything based on income. In any event, the fact is we do not have to pay for the goods and services we use based upon income levels so why is it fair to make those in higher income brackets pay more in taxes (as a percent, of course they will always pay more in actual dollars)?
The interesting thing here is that while we all receive the same benefit from the protection afforded by aircraft carriers or roads or food we do not receive the same or equal benefits from government. Remember I said assuming we all received the same benefit from government? Well the fact is those in the lower income brackets use far more in government services than those in the higher income brackets. The lower income folks actually receive more from the government than they pay in while those in the higher end receive less than they pay in. Some people pay nothing and receive a lot from the government. The lower three quintiles consume much more than the upper two even though the upper two pay for nearly all the costs of government.
If we wanted to have a fair tax system, those who make less should pay more because they consume more. No one is suggesting that and it certainly would not be reasonable to do so. What would be fair is for government to charge everyone the same rate on their income. We would all be paying equally for the supposed equal benefits of government.
Congress does not want this because they love to take our money and waste it. I have done better investing my money than they have with the money they take from me for Social Security. I know how to better handle my money than they do. Congress has abused the Alternative Minimum Tax and reaped billions of dollars they were not entitled to because they collected it in violation of the rules governing why the AMT was established. Now they are crying that to fix the AMT they need to raise taxes to offset the revenue loss.
The AMT was designed to make millionaires pay a minimum amount in taxes. For years, people who are by no means millionaires have been paying the AMT which means the government has been taking money that it was not entitled to. They should be refunding money to all the people who were forced to pay taxes as if they were millionaires.
In any event, the fact is Congress is incapable of spending money with any amount of responsibility. They have the IRS mob to enforce their extortion racket and they jail those who do not pay taxes to deter the rest of us from deciding not to pay. We need to get rid of all of them and start fresh.
Congress needs an enema.
Source of Vin Suprynowicz’s article:
Indoctrination? What Indoctrination?
Source of Democrat’s Tax the rich
Tags: Democrats, fiscal irresponsibility, rich people, taxes
Democrats Break Work-Week Promise
Dec 4, 2007 Political
The Democrats promised that they would work 5 days a week and that they would do more than the do-nothing Republicans. They started out like a ball of fire and worked nearly 5 full days while members from both parties complained about not being home (here is a clue. If you don’t like it get out). Then the work weeks started slipping and poof, they are gone. Next year the Democratically controlled Congress will only work a few 5 day weeks and they will be off for about 2 weeks every time a holiday pops up and of course, they will be off the entire month of August. I know that it is tough working all those days in DC when they have families and constituents at home but they are the ones who said they would do it.
As for this idea being floated around that they did more than the Republican led Congresses ever did, it is hogwash. They might have been there more days than when the Republicans are in charge but they have not done much of anything. They have not passed a budget and it is months overdue. Their irresponsibility will soon cause government workers to be furloughed (no one from Congress will miss a paycheck though) and our military will not have the things they need to fight the war. The Democrats have not done anything about the Alternative Minimum Tax which will bite a lot of people it was never intended to touch. The Democrats did pass a minimum wage increase by adding it to a DEFENSE bill and they have been pretty good at naming post offices. Other than that, they have done little.
I realize that it is hard for these folks to be away from their home districts and that it causes them problems. I have no sympathy for them because they ran for office of their own free will and if it were actually as terrible as they make it seem they would not keep running. Fact is, they keep running because they have a lot of power and do very little to earn a paycheck. Our military, on the other hand, has to be away from their families for a very long time and they are in constant danger and they sure as hell do not make anywhere near as much money as a member of Congress. However, there is no excuse for the members of Congress to get 2 weeks off every time a holiday rolls around and they certainly do not need the entire month of August off. They say they are working in their districts but it seems to me that their districts are not in Iraq, Israel, Syria or other places that they trek off to. Those who stay in their districts have a strange way of working. Must be difficult to get things done while standing on skis or sailing in a boat.
However, there is a solution to this. A commenter at The Politico mentioned it and I had thought of it before. Why do these people need to be in DC to do their jobs. We have some of the most sophisticated equipment in the world. Certainly they should be able to cast votes from their district offices. Congress could be in DC for two weeks (including the weekends) and then be in their districts for the next two. They can work on the committee stuff while in DC and their staff can put it all together. They can hold confirmation hearings and other things that require them all to be there at that time. Then, they can go home and work in their district offices where they would be in communication with other members when votes were taken. I am sure that it could be set up so they could vote electronically and I know it could be done via roll call.
They should use modern technology to alleviate the burden, and cost, of traveling all over the country. This would also ensure they are actually working during the 2 week holiday breaks and would negate the need to have all of August off. It would also put the members of Congress with their constituents instead of DC with the lobbyists. This would allow the people who the members should be listening to greater access and curb the access that lobbyists currently enjoy. It is not necessary for them to be in DC all the time they spend there and it is a waste of money to let them have off all the time. The rest of us have to go to work everyday or we don’t get paid.
There is one thing that the Democrats have shown with their latest work schedule. This country needs a smaller, less intrusive government. The work schedule shows that they believe they do not need to work more than a few hundred days a year and that they can take off a lot. Surely, they are showing we do not need them all the time and that a part time government would be satisfactory.
In any event, the Democrats broke the promise they made. I don’t care about all the circumstances, they made the promise. They knew they could not (or would not) keep it but they made it anyway. Seems the donks have broken a lot of promises this past year.
Is anyone surprised?
As an aside, since they are late with the budget and have not fixed the AMT shouldn’t we be able to file our taxes later this year? If they don’t have to do anything on time, why should we?
Tags: broken promises, Congress, Democrats, taxes, work week
More Clinton Socialism; Hold Your Wallets
Oct 9, 2007 Uncategorized
It is beyond me why Democrats think it is perfectly OK to take money from rich people and give it to poor people. The Maryland Governor (a Clinton backer) is looking to change taxes in Maryland and saddle the rich with a higher income bracket to pay for the out of control spending. He calls it a fair system. Hillary Clinton, who is a socialist, has already been shot down on her plan to give $5000 to each newborn. Evidently the polls showed this was a bad idea because she abandoned it.
Now the Socialism queen is saying that she would start a government 401(k) plan for all workers and this plan would cost 20-25 BILLION dollars a year. How will she get the money? Why tax the rich, of course. Hillary said the plan was to take away the inequity in our society and allow everyone to have savings for retirement. What she is doing is making the rich pay for the retirement of the poor. It is a disgrace and it smacks of Socialism.
The government already extorts money from us in a ponzi scheme they call Social Security. The money is taken from workers, ostensibly for their retirement, but it is not saved for the worker. It is immediately turned over to the current crop of retirees. Anything left over is spent by the idiots in DC with nothing more than an IOU left in the safe. The courts have ruled that the money is not ours and that the government can decide how to distribute it, or even not to distribute it. The money does not even transfer to your heirs if you die before collecting it. This system has been extremely mismanaged by the government and there are no protections for workers because the money is not controlled by the worker. It is extorted and then wasted.
If the government wants us to have a mandatory savings plan then let us take the system that is in place and revamp it. First of all, set up individual accounts so that money paid in is earmarked (I know they know what that means) for the employee who paid it in. Then allow the employee to invest that money in a number of savings and stock plans just as federal employees do with the Thrift Savings Plan. The money will belong to the employee and pass to his family when he dies. No one in the government will be able to touch it. This is one of the problems with Social Security. The government takes control of the money and spends it on things that are not retirement benefits (they transfer it to the general funds). The second problem is that Social Security has morphed into a social panacea for all problems. They pay for handicapped kids, disabled people, and a number of other things that has nothing to do with retirement.
With the track record of the idiots in DC do we really want them to have any more control over our money? What would stop them from spending it on their pork projects? What would stop them from deciding that they needed to cover the unemployed with our money? If they contend that the money will be in individual retirement accounts and cannot be touched by the feds then I say revamping Social Security would accomplish the same thing.
The federal government does not run anything efficiently and they do not look out for our interests. They are concerned with how to get elected and how to stay elected. I do not want them messing with my money as I can handle my own retirement accounts much better than they can. I certainly do not want them to dig into my pockets for more of my hard earned cash.
Hillary Clinton is a socialist and she will ruin this country if she is elected. Her ideas are anti American and they are not, despite what people like the Maryland Governor would say, fair.
Take this little quiz and see what you think.
Tags: Democrats, Hillary, Political Opinion, socialism, taxes
Maryland Governor Awakens from Coma, has Epiphany
Sep 26, 2007 Uncategorized
Maryland’s Governor, Martin O’Malley, has awakened from a coma this week and has discovered information that was widely known for the last four years. O’Malley has just now discovered that millions of dollars leave the state of Maryland and go to Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia. He has just realized that slot machines in those states are drawing huge crowds from Maryland, crowds that are more than happy to spend their money in places that are more accommodating to their needs. It would appear as if he has also just discovered that Maryland’s horse racing industry is in serious financial trouble and that slots at race tracks might help. He is only about four and a half years too late.
When O’Malley was the mayor of Baltimore, a city that is no better off because of his tenure (despite his claims to the contrary), he was opposed to slot machines. He said that slots were a morally bankrupt method of obtaining revenue to pay the bills. Of course, his opposition came when Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich wanted those slot machines. Some of O’Malley’s fellow Democrats in Annapolis were also opposed to slot machines and, as is true with all Democrats, preferred to raise taxes in order to provide satiety for their spending appetites.
The State of Maryland has a 1.5 billion dollar budget deficit. This is the fault of the Democrats in this state and only an idiot believes otherwise. The Democrats have held power here for over forty years and Ehrlich was only the third or fourth Republican Governor in the state’s history. Previous governors and their Democratic lap dogs in Annapolis have continued to spend unfettered and they have imposed spending requirements without securing appropriate funding sources. They refuse to cut government growth and make only token budget cuts because to them the only way to solve problems is to remove money from the people who actually work to earn it.
For four years Governor Ehrlich tried to get slot machines to raise revenue for the horse racing industry and to increase cash flow into the state coffers. For four years he met opposition from people who allowed their political agendas to get in the way of functioning professionally and honestly. These very same politicians seem to have had a change of heart and will now grant O’Malley the slot machines. They will give him the win Ehrlich could not obtain. The only thing that has changed in this time is that the deficit has increased. Now, there are those still opposed but they are willing to compromise, something they tell us politicians must be willing to do. Too bad these dimwits were not willing to compromise when a Republican was in the driver’s seat. If they had, we would be on our way to recovery.
My personal opinion is that I do not care about slot machines one way or another. I gamble occasionally but have never been to the other states to gamble. I believe that having the machines is a good way to increase revenue and that if the people want them then we should get them. I do not believe the issue should be used as a political weapon while the state falls deeper into the abyss. I also find it hard to take people opposed to slots seriously when they say that gaming is not the way to make money and that gambling affects poor people who spend their money on the games of chance rather than on their bills.
I have a hard time because the state of Maryland runs a lottery. It is not just a one pick a day small time operation either. It started as one, where a three digit number was drawn every evening. This quickly morphed into three and four digit drawings two times a day, mega millions, match 5, the lotto, as well as a number of other games and special events. They even have a zillion varieties of scratch off lotteries. All these games are played by the people who the Democrats worry about so what difference will slots make? It is not like these things are out of the control of government because the state is solely responsible for the lottery and for deciding how many games are designed and introduced.
The state runs the lottery and it has race tracks where on any given day during the racing season, people can be found spending money betting on horses. The state has not shut down that industry and they have not shut down the lottery and yet slot machines give them a moral dilemma? Give me a break.
I predicted after the election that we would get slots but I also predicted we would get tax increases in every venue imaginable. The Speaker wants tax increases and the governor, in addition to wanting to raise taxes, (after his epiphany) wants slots. The compromise of which they speak is that we will get both. O’Malley is on his tour of the state touting all the taxes he is going to raise. Gas, cigarettes, income, sales, services, property (they say they will lower the property tax rate but we all know that means they will increase our assessments so we will pay more), you name it and he is going to tax it. If he could figure out how to measure it, he would tax the air we breathe.
I will not be a party to these games and have no intention of willingly forking over more money. I had always said that I would not go to other states just to play slots but that if we had them here I would play every once in a while. I now vow that I will never play slots in this state and I ask others to do the same. Go to the other states and support them because Maryland does not deserve your support. I recommend that you visit Delaware to play the slots because they have no sales tax. While you are there you might as well buy the things you need and avoid the Maryland taxes at the same time. You folks who smoke and happen to live near Virginia, you might want to go there because the taxes on cigarettes there will be about $1.70 ($17.00 a carton) lower than Maryland. Folks should also consider Internet purchases (that is until MD finds a way to tax that). I also recommend that anyone who can, move to another state. I cannot move just yet but I want out of this mad house so I will stay open to other opportunities.
The state of Maryland is in a terrible state because of the Democrats who have run it for decades. It has been run into the ground and now they have begun digging. The poor school system has produced generations of people who are not bright enough to recognize this so they keep voting for the same idiots who got us in this mess. As I have been saying, we need to vote all of these poor performers out of office and replace them with competent people who actually have experience in the real world.
It is time for a revolution in this state. It is time to rid ourselves of the vermin that infests Annapolis and it is time for us to take charge of our future because left in the hands of these idiots, there will be no brighter days ahead.
As an aside, I am kind of glad that the taxes will screw the poor and working class folks very greatly and that it will eat the hell out of the income of the wealthy. I want them to feel every ounce of pain that the tax increases cause and I want them to feel it each and every day. They voted for this idiot to run the state and I want their choice to hurt them as much as possible. I want them to pay all these increases only to see their money given to ILLEGALS for college. I want them to be so devastated by these taxes that if carpet costs 10 cents a square yard they could not afford to upholster a gnat’s ass. Pain is a great teacher and until these people start feeling a lot of pain for their choices they will continue to make bad ones. Perhaps if they are affected enough they will finally get the message.
For those who believe this idiot governor when he says that the taxes will only affect the rich. He is lying through his teeth. Remember, he was going to stop the electric rate hike if you would only vote for him. How did that work out, by the way? Oh yeah, 75% increase. Add that to your new taxes and this guy is costing you a lot of money.
Some people never learn.
Tags: gambling, horse racing, illegal aliens, income, liar, Maryland, O'Malley, Political Commentary, property, slot machines, taxes